Chilean salmon farmer Invermar is seeking to increase biomass production at its Chalihué center, located on the Island of Chiloé, according to documents the company filed with the Environmental Assessment Service (SEA by its acronym in Spanish).
The USD 2.5 million (EUR 2.1 million) project would increase salmon production to 6,000 metric tons (MT) a year from its current volume of 5,000 metric tons annually, Invermar said in the related environmental impact statement (EIS). The project would include the expansion and modification of facilities and infrastructure, including 32 cages measuring 40 meters by 40 meters and 15 meters deep. The project is slated to kick off on 4 January 2021.
Production at the center is comprised of salmonids from smolts, up to an average harvest weight of 4.5 kilograms, according to the EIS. The aquaculture concession for the Chalihué site covers 13 hectares and is located specifically on Isla Lemuy, in the community of Puqueldón.
Invermar highlighted the Chalihué center’s location in an area with “ideal characteristics for this industry and specifically for the cultivation and/or fattening of hydrobiological resources. In particular, the wide availability and quality of its waters, in terms of salinity and temperature, make the development of this production excellent.”
In January of this year, the company’s then-general manager Paul Weber Silva stepped down in January amid financial losses and a failed attempt to de-list from the Santiago Stock Exchange and was replaced by Cristián Fernández Jeria, who up until that point had served as a zonal manager.
Then, in April, microalgae cochlodinium caused mass mortality at Invermar’s Tepun production center in Quellón, which was holding a total population of 937,257 coho salmon weighing approximately 780 grams each.
